Attached is a paper in pdf by one of my students. In it he proposes that up
to 75% of the market is subject to illegal copying the secondary effects
still result in earnings, and that a critical role of open code is the
creation of native software companies.
Of course this has clear implications not only for the developing world
(where most illegal copying occurs) but also for free and open code. It
implies that obtaining payment for 25% of the downloads could be a functional
business model.
I hope for improvements based on your real-world comments. I acknowledge
that this is a strictly economic work, which does not address issues of human
freedom, code as speech, etc. So within its framing, comments are more than
welcome.
His data sources are mostly availalbe in
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/cid/ciddata/datalinks.html
and in the Index for Readiness report from CID (which you have to order).
I have advised him to publish it in netnomics, so journal recommendations are
also welcome.
Thank you for your time and attention on this work.
-Jean